Lady Tigers lose to Fairfield in 3 sets
Fairfield's Alyssa Bales (19) and Ally Maynard (2) are shown during Wednesday's match at McClain. (HCP Photos/Jim Jones)
GREENFIELD — The McClain Lady Tigers varsity volleyball team suffered a straight sets loss to county rival Fairfield Wednesday night (Aug. 20) by scores of 26-24, 25-20 and 25-18.
With the win the Lady Lions improved to 3-0 on the season while the Lady Tigers slip to 1-2 with the loss.
Despite falling in straight sets the McClain squad battled the entire match and both teams showed a lot of grit and determination throughout the night.
In the first match the Lady Tigers led early, but Fairfield fought back and grabbed the lead in the middle part. McClain rallied late and held a slim advantage down the stretch before the Lady Lions pulled it out at the end by a 26-24 score. Neither team led by more than three points and there were only five ties.
Fairfield led from start to finish in game two with Paisley Stahlhut and Remi Moon both having big serving games for the Lady Lions.
McClain started game three with an early 4-1 advantage but the Lady Lions regrouped again and after tying the score at 4-4, out-scored McClain 21-14 the rest of the set and held on for another competitive 25-18 final.
A disappointed first-year McClain head coach Cierra Bolender still had lots of praise for her young and extremely in-experienced team.
“We have a freshman and a couple sophomores starting for us who have to fill some big shoes from several seniors lost to graduation last year. Regardless of the outcome, I’m still proud of how my girls battled back in every set tonight,” Bolender said. “No matter what the deficit, it didn’t really feel like we were losing by very much.
“Adelyn Snyder had a really big game for us up front at the net tonight and I thought Molly McCune and Alaya Jackson both served well for us. Brooklyn Bolender also came in and did a good job serving too for a first-time playing in a varsity match.
“I’m just really proud of our confidence we showed at the net today and we never stopped swinging and I thought we had some really good looks with a lot of our hitters. It was a good collective flow overall for us and its still early on the season.”
McClain next plays Saturday at home vs. Zane Trace with 10 a.m. JV start time.
